Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, we have one of the best movies of the year in Ben Affleck‘s Air hitting shelves. Today also includes Joy Ride, as well as a Criterion Collection release. Read on for more…
Air
Ben Affleck’s latest film is another winner. Affleck productions run like clockwork, with this one being no exception. Matt Damon and Viola Davis lead an aces cast, with everything just working so very well. My rave review here on the site includes the following:
Sports movies can often center on athletes, sure, but some of the great ones (or sports-adjacent ones) never even focus on game being played. Just think of Jerry Maguire and Moneyball, for example. The characters and the drive to win a different kind of game fuel the narrative. Ben Affleck‘s return to directing, as well as his latest collaboration with Matt Damon, is of that ilk, and it truly stands tall with those other films. Air is an absolute triumph, supremely entertaining while also trafficking in emotion and ideas. It’s the full package and the cinematic equivalent of a franchise player. Nothing else so far this year can match the slam dunk (excuse the pun, but everyone will be doing it) that is Air. Affleck has been gone from behind the camera for too long. We’ve missed him.
Air is far more than just the best “dad movie” in years, or even just a sports flick. Utilizing the story of Nike pursuing a partnership with a rookie Michael Jordan, we get a testament to believing in yourself, believing in others, and standing for something. It takes real talent to invest you in the tale of a shoe salesman, the underdog aspect of an eventual billion dollar corporation, and the budding career of a legend you barely see, but Affleck and company pull it off in spades. It runs like clockwork and never ceases to be a delight.
Also Available This Week
Cobweb (TV)
Corner Office
Final Cut (Interview with Michel Hazanavicius here)
Poker Face: Season One (TV)
Rick & Morty: Complete Seasons 1-6 (TV)
Succession: The Complete Series (TV)
The Walking Dead – Dead City: The Complete First Season (TV)
Criterion Corner
From The Criterion Collection: “A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to cope in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Along the way, they meet an Aboriginal youth on his walkabout, a rite of passage in which adolescent boys are initiated into manhood by journeying into the wilderness alone. Walkabout is a thrilling adventure as well as a provocative rumination on time and civilization.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
For some strange, mysterious, unknowable reason, reading about Air just reminded me that my dad’s birthday is coming up soon.
Go figure, my dad’s is tomorrow